


A Parent's Pledge

by Kimcat



Series: Phic Phight 2019 [10]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Bonding, Fenton pheels, Fluff, Gen, Phic Phight 2019, Reveal, Team Ghost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 07:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18633769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimcat/pseuds/Kimcat
Summary: Reveal- Jack starts to question why ghost hunting equipment malfunctions around Danny. Exclusively around DannyBonding reveal fic.





	A Parent's Pledge

**Original prompt by Duckapus** : Reveal- Jack starts to question why ghost hunting equipment malfunctions around Danny. Exclusively around Danny.   
  
**Character list** : Danny, Jack, Maddie,   
  
**Categories** : Family bonding, floofy feels.   
  
**Warnings** : n.a   
  
**Total word count** : 3,543

 

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"Dann-O look, I think I finally fixed the problems with the Ghost Gabber!" Jack called to his son as he entered the lab.   
  
"Really? That's great Dad!" Danny chirped with a bright smile. "Dinner's ready though."   
  
"This pleases me male parent, nourishment is to be consumed now." The machine in Jack's hand drawled in its monotone voice.   
  
"Awe... I thought for sure..." Jack pouted before putting the Gabber down on the work bench and flipping the machine off.   
  
"It's still a step in the right direction, I mean it didn't add any weird thing at the end, like fear me." Danny tried to encourage.   
  
"Awe thanks son!" Jack grinned in thanks as he followed his child up the stairs.   
  
After dinner Jack returned to his projects, or rather his box of failed inventions, with a frown. Every single one of them had some sort of malfunction, causing it to be a failure.   
  
"Ghost Gabber- repeats what Danny says... Fenton Finder- keeps leading me to Dann-o's room... Fenton auto-target- only 'targets' Danny..." Jack sighed as he went through the inventions. "There's gotta be something I'm missing..."   
  
The large man stared at his sprawl of devices he'd laid out on the table. Each he'd tried to rewire, and rework no less then three times a piece, to no avail. With yet another deep sigh, deep blue eyes began scanning the notes once again.   
  
It was then he noticed a common theme with all of the devices.   
  
Danny-boy's name was always somewhere in the reports, every single one, and only him... Finds Danny? Hones in on Danny? Attacks Danny? It was all there. Jack mumbled to himself as he thought over the implications as he searched back through the logs that him and his wife had from all their inventions, hoping to find the earliest instance of when his devices started targeting his son.   
  
To his amazement it seemed it all happened right around the time the portal got working.   
  
Huh... Was that the correlation? Danny did get a shock from a discharging capacitor as the portal turned on...   
  
Or at least that's what he'd told them.   
  
With a frown he turned to look at the ghost proof blast doors on the portal. A add on that Dann-O himself had advocated for... He'd be lying if he said it hadn't helped to keep the ghost activity down somewhat.   
  
Jack sighed again as he inspected the edges of the portal, running his hand along the edge of the large device, and feeling the small hum beneath his hand. If he was being honest he wasn't even sure how the capacitor had shocked the boy. Everything should have been wired in to ground along the portals internals, and if there was an electrical leak somewhere, the device shouldn't have been able to function at all.   
  
It was a mystery that he and his wife often thought over, and questioned. With a shake of his head he tried to let the thought pass.   
  
Danny really couldn't still be contaminated from that shock could he?   
  
No. That wouldn't be possible he would have to be making his own ectoplasm at this point for that to be feasible.   
  
So then....   
  
Jack blinked, his head snapping up to stare blankly at the wall as a cold, icy chill of fear shot through him, running the back of his neck with frigid tendrils. At dinner Vlad had called and Mads had answered the phone, but Danny...   
  
Thinking back he had thought it was a trick of the light. Once second, his son's crystal blue orbs... But between a blink of his boys eyes, they seemed to reflect green, only to be blue again a moment later.   
  
Was Danny overshadowed? What if something had come out of the portal as it turned on and took over their son's body? It would explain the high contamination levels.... And like fools they had gone with Danny's insistence he was fine. They pretended he was alright!   
  
But Danny still acted like their Danny boy....   
  
Well, mostly.   
  
The boy has been acting rather flighty lately, and brushing off his responsibilities. Not to mention how tired he always seems to look and act. Jack himself had caught the boy asleep upside down on the stairs at one point last month! Which really, was a feat in of itself.   
  
He needed to test this somehow. If his boy really was overshadowed, he needed help! Who knows the effects long term overshadowing could have on a person... Or would it be possession at this point?   
  
He needed answers. He needed to help his son! But he needed to do so in a way that wouldn't anger what ever evil, good for nothing spook had its claws on his boy. He didn't want to think about just what exactly a vengeful ghost could do to his kind hearted son.   
  
Hos mind was happy to supply some vivid images however, causing a shudder to roll through his body.   
  
With new found fervor Jack sat back at the workbench. First things first, make sure the spook was still only overshadowing his son, and they were not in the muddier waters of possession.   
  
He worked well into the night, and early into the morning, not getting to bed until about 5 AM, but he'd sacrifice all his sleep if he knew it would save his son.   
  
Maddie was already in bed, deep asleep and cuddling into his pillow. A poor replacement for the bulk and warmth his body usually provided. With a yawn he carefully slid into bed, careful not to disturb his wife's rest, as he pulled the covers over his body.   
  
A sigh escaped Maddie as she readjusted. His girth weighing down the mattress almost allowing the light form of his wife to be elevated above him. Regardless of how careful he'd tried to be, he still ended up waking his wife.   
  
"Jack honey, I told you it's not good to stay in the lab this late..." Maddie said with a bleary tone.   
  
"I know sweets, but I really was working on something important this time." Jack said rolling to his back and turning his head to face his spouse.   
  
"Alright dear" A large yawn escaped her as he eyes fluttered closed again. "Tell me at breakfast...." She trailed off, but not before snuggling herself into his chest. He nodded to himself slipping his large arm around her slender shoulder, and giving her a kiss within her auburn hair.   
  
He wouldn't worry her. Not yet. It was his job to protect their family after all, regardless on how often she'd done so herself. He needed to prove he could be capable as well.   
  
Jack awoke late on the Saturday morning, having been allowed to sleep in, not noticing when his wife had roused to go through her morning routine. He pulled himself to his feet, and quickly made his way down stairs.   
  
"Did Danny head out yet?" Jack asked his wife, who was finishing up some house keeping in the living room.   
  
"I don't think so, he should still be in his room." Maddie said with a shrug. "With both you and him sleeping in so late I was getting worried we wouldn't have lunch together."   
  
Jack smiled brightly at his wife as she told him there was still coffee. He'd just gotten the drink the way he likes it, when he heard his wife call out to their son.   
  
"Oh Danny! Your father was looking for you!" A loud thumping on the stairs followed as their boy trudged noisily down.   
  
"M'kay" The teen yawned.   
  
“Alright Jack, time to use those Improv electives you opted into during college.” He muttered under his breath. "Hey Danny!" the man boomed excitedly. Was that too much?   
  
The teen winced. Okay tone it down, dial it back. You got this Fenton!   
  
"I got a new invention I wanted to show ya!" Was that better? Smoother? More natural? Did he put too much emphasis on the wrong part?   
  
Danny raised a brow but otherwise seemed to not notice anything off. "Sure Dad."   
  
They made their way down the stairs to the lab and Jack could barely contain himself as he bounded over to the workbench. He hoped his son saw it as excitement, and not the nervousness it was in actuality.   
  
Danny stood at the end of the table, waiting patiently for the reveal. Jack wasn't about to disappoint. He held up the pair of green tinted goggles with a forced smile.   
  
"These here, are the Fenton Ecto-Eyes!"   
  
"Neat... Um, what does it do?" Danny asked, tilting his head slightly to the side as he inspected the goggles.   
  
"Well when ya put ‘em on you can see if there’s any ghosts nearby that are invisible! It also lets ya see if there’s a ghost masquerading as a human, or possessing one!"   
  
Danny suddenly looked a little fearful. "It does what?"   
  
That's not a promising response...   
  
"Yep no ghost will be able to hide anywhere near Jack Fenton ever again!" The large man pressed, tone clear in a warning as his navy blue eyes scanned the nervous looking boy.   
  
Jack placed the goggles on his head and flipped on the power, staring intently at his son.   
  
"Huh..." His boy had an odd aura surrounding him. It meant he wasn't possessed, which should have been a good thing... But the visual he WAS getting, is more in line with a ghost masquerading as a human... That meant something far worse.   
  
"Wh-What do you see Dad?" Danny asked looking up into his father's eyes behind the goggles. The boy's eyes looked like they were shining like night-lights through the lenses, and the glowing aura surrounding him seemed to flicker reflecting the emotions that were written on his son's face.   
  
"I'm not entirely sure..." Jack offered honestly. "Maybe you should tell me?"   
  
"I-I don't know?" Danny looked afraid now. Maybe his tone was too harsh... If this ghost was his son.... Well... He honestly hoped it was, rather then a spook that had pulled his boy into the Ghost portal upon it's starting, with intent to replace the kid.   
  
"Here." Jack took off the goggles and tossed them gently to the teen. The large man forced a smile as Danny seemed to be caught off guard with the turn of events.   
  
"O-Oh.... That's what you meant." He seemed to sag in relief, though still fumbled with the eyewear in his nervousness, before he was able to get them on his head.   
  
The lenses seemed to light up brighter as his son looked about the lab. It was almost as if his eyes were glowing beneath the tinted glass illuminating them from behind.   
  
The teen managed to make his way cautiously over to the mirror on the wall, where he seemed to stay and inspect himself for a long moment in tense silence. it was a solid thirty seconds before he shook his head and made his way back to Jack.   
  
"It makes everything look all... Glow-ey?" Danny offered unsure.   
  
"That's true too I suppose..." Jack sighed, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair, before his boy took off the goggles to hand them back.   
  
Danny frowned as he looked up to his father's face. "What's wrong Dad?" All previous nervousness gone as the teen began to fret over his elder.   
  
"Maybe take a seat here boy..." Jack tried to sound normal, he really did, but the wince from Danny said otherwise. The large man only ever used simply 'boy' when he was in trouble. Danny looked nervous and worried out of his mind, but even still, he complied with the request.   
  
He's such a good kid...   
  
"You know I love you...son..." Jack hated the hesitation he took. Danny noticed it too and began to fidget. "... I know I'm not the best father at times but... Please answer honestly" Jack said simply trying to ignore the burning behind his eyes as he stared into his son's timidly darting icy orbs.   
  
"O-Okay?"   
  
"I can tell your not overshadowed or being controlled, but....When did you die? A-And how..."   
  
"I... oh..." Danny slumped into himself, his legs instantly became clamped into his chest as the boy seemed to shake.   
  
"Son? ...You are STILL my son right?" Jack asked despite himself.   
  
"Yes! Yeah... Yea... I'm-I'm still me, Danny Fenton, me I... I'm not overshadowed....Yea" The boy's eyes were wild in fear as his gaze darted around the lab, eyes landing behind Jack to the weapon's vault and then darting over to their steel examination table.   
  
Jack pulled a chair over to his son sitting directly in front of him blocking his boy's view from anything other then his father's large head. "Please son... I need to know... Was it the portal?"   
  
Danny's eye line dropped to the floor confirming Jack's dreaded question. "Pl-please don't" Danny’s voice quivered. "It-it's not like..." His voice hitched as he swallowed harshly.   
  
Jack sighed as a sad smile came to his face. He laid his large hands on his son's small shoulders, and tried not to let it effect him when the teen flinched away from his touch. Danny's wild blue eyes seemed to be slowly staining green as he fought to keep still while he locked eyes with the man.   
  
Jack had no doubts that the kid would have fled if he wasn't rooted to his spot in fear.   
  
It was rather ironic. His son, a powerful and dangerous ghost, quivering in fear at his unarmed parent. The fact he was so afraid broke Jack's heart, as he scanned his boy's now watering, fear filled, lamp lit eyes. He looked more like a cornered animal getting ready to be devoured then anything else, flinching and shying away from Jacks every move.   
  
So instead, the doting father did the only thing he could think of to comfort his scared child. He slipped his large hands down his boys arms, which now that he focused on, were rather cool to the touch, and pulled him forward.   
  
Danny felt stiff in his arms, so the large man moved to further cradle his son, much like he did when the boy was so much smaller. Jack could feel the teen’s muscles bunch and go taught as he was hoisted onto his father's lap, still coiled into himself in a tight ball.   
  
Danny seemed so listless, stiff... Afraid of him. Afraid of what he'd do.   
  
"I'm sorry if I ever made you feel unsafe with us." Jack said simply squeezing the youth tighter "If this really has been... If you've really been...." Jack couldn't bring himself to say it, and instead closed his eyes with a deep sigh. "Since the portal, ya haven't caused any problems... Maybe- Maybe your simply -a good spirit."   
  
Danny's tense form seemed to relax slightly at his words, so he continued to ramble.   
  
"I seen this little glow ghost once... Didn't do much, just kinda wanted to be in the flower beds at the park. I even poked 'em and the ‘lil thing didn't even shock me or attack! Nothin’! even when I caught the little guy in my bare hands and pulled 'em away from the very flowers it was obsessing over, all it did was flutter away intangibly... Was kinda like a fire fly really... Ghostly fire fly but... Still though, meant to me that maybe ghosts aren't all violent, ya know?"   
  
"I... Yo-You're not gunna th-throw me into the Z-Zone?" Danny shook almost as much as his voice.   
  
"Naw," Jack tried to lighten the mood. "Your still too young to be on your own. 'Sides if your not around, who will I go on father son fishing trips with?"   
  
Danny looked up into his father's eyes, hopeful expression, plain as day written across his face. "N-No experiments o-or rip-ripping me apart?" The youth flinched harshly as he mentioned the more... unsavoury things Jack and to a lesser degree Maddie had spouted on occasion.   
Hell! They've talked about what experiments they wanted to try at the dinner table!   
  
"Would never do that to you. Ever. Experiments, well only if you want to, maybe we can test out some of your cool powers! I'm sure you've got loads!" Jack offered a large smile hoping to calm his kid down further.   
  
"Um... Yea... I go-got a few neat ones... But, uh... I'm-I'm not really a full- a full ghost..." Danny said weakly recoiling away and hiding his head again from the confused look that Jack was now giving him.   
  
"The other ghosts... They call me a halfa... I'm kinda a-a really rare breed?" Danny offered, speaking into his knees.   
  
Jack wasn't too sure what to make of that, but right now that wasn't important. What was, is proving to his son that he didn't need to be afraid in his own house. Afraid of him. The large man's thoughts spiraled with new thoughts upon confirming his fears about his child.   
  
Were they the reason he was always tired? He felt too nervous to sleep in his own house fearing his hunter parents would suddenly turn on him? That thought made Jacks stomach flip and drop to the floor. He felt so low. How little did his own son think of him that he would assume they would be scientists before parents?   
  
"I don't fully understand, but a rare ghost! That's awesome! my own son one of the rarest ghosts out there! That just means that I've got the best son in existence!" Jack grinned, forcing himself to sound more excited then he felt in hopes to get his son to feel better. "And it means we can make some cool inventions that will help ya if you ever need it!"   
  
Danny seemed to respond to that, as he turned his head to look at his father again, a mirthless chuckle escaping him.   
  
"Oh! Just think! We could get you a cool outfit and you could fight ghosts on their own terms! Maybe even give that Phantom a run for his money!" Jack's smile fell as he noticed his son cringe at his words. He said something wrong again. He never was good at reading people... or ghosts, as the case were.   
  
"Y-Yea about that..." Danny chuckled nervously as he suddenly fell through Jack’s arms, gaining a semi translucent look between the mans blinks. "Um I already kinda do fight ghosts.... As Phantom?" Danny's voice squeaked up at the end.   
  
Huh, well that... that was unexpected. "You're trying to say your Phantom?" Jack asked voice flat with all the confusion he felt.   
  
"Y-Yea... It's what I look like as- as a ghost... I'm all inverted?" Danny scuffed his toe on the ground as he shifted nervously. "I can tell you about the stuff that happened, like the mayor and the robberies... But both weren't my fault and I never meant to have it happen but the stupid staff and-"   
  
"Hey, hey it's okay..." Jack tried to soothe. He knew full well his wife was better at placating their son, but he didn't want his mate to fret over this just yet. Not until he had all the details. "All that means is we were wrong about Phantom too. He's a ghost hunter as well right? That means my son is following in my footsteps and I couldn't be more proud of that!"   
  
Danny stared blankly a moment before his lips cracked into a small smile. "Y-Yea I guess that's true huh?"   
  
"Though we'll have to talk about your colour choices. Really hunter orange is a much better colour!"   
  
"I'm not sure I can change the outfit even if I wanted to in all honesty..." Danny offered nervously scratching at the back of his neck as he shuffled about.   
  
"Bah! We'll work on that later then! Maybe that can be our first experiment? Ghosts should be able to form their appearance based on their self image, so all we gotta do is figure out how you see yourself! OH! Jazzy would love that!" Jack beamed at the prospect of having a family ghost project.   
  
"Please don't get her involved in that!" Danny groaned, acting much more like himself now.   
  
"Hmm, maybe it'll be a father son secret for a bit then! Oh! We can talk in codes!" Jack's grin widened.   
  
"No...." Danny buried his face in his hand again this time in embarrassment.   
  
"Awwwwe com'on Dann-O It'll be fun! besides what kinda father would I be if I can't embarrass you in public every chance I get! Jack teased.   
  
"I take back what I said about throwing me into the Zone.... It'll be a mercy." He spoke into his palms.   
  
"Nonsense Danny-boy you're stuck here for good!"   
  
Despite the look of horror stricken mortification, Danny started laughing. "Thanks Dad... Really that... that means a lot to me."   
  
"No problem son," Jack said as he moved to drape a large arm over his boy's shoulders, giving him a side hug. "I'll always love you, no matter what!"   
  
"Y-Yea... I- I know... Really- Thanks... Love you too."

 

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~Complete~   



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